Tuesday, December 26, 2006

ANOTHER MILESTONE

The "milestone" crowd in the media is at it again. The total number of US personnel killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom has exceeded the total killed in the 9/11 attacks. From ABC News:

In a span of a few hours, 2,973 people were killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In a span of 45 months, the number of American troops killed in Iraq exceeded that grim toll as the war continues.

The milestone in Iraq came on Christmas, nearly four years after the war began, according to a count by The Associated Press. In announcing the Monday deaths of three soldiers, the toll from those fighting the war surpassed the toll from those killed by terrorists in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

For a little historical perspective, the number of US personnel killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 was 2388. Total US war dead for World War II: 418,500. That total includes those killed in the European Theater of operations fighting the Germans and Italians; who, by the way, never attacked us.

Look, either OIF was the right thing to do, or it was the wrong thing to do. The numbers game is nothing but a diversion, and the last thing we need right now is yet another diversion.